I Made It Out of Clay

De: Beth Kander

Narrado por: Gail Shalan

In this darkly funny and surprisingly sweet novel, a woman creates a golem in a desperate attempt to pretend her life is a rom-com rather than a disaster.

Nothing’s going well for Eve: she’s single, turning forty, stressed at work and anxious about a recent series of increasingly creepy incidents. Most devastatingly, her beloved father died last year, and her family still won’t acknowledge their sorrow.

With her younger sister’s wedding rapidly approaching, Eve is on the verge of panic. She can’t bear to attend the event alone. That’s when she recalls a strange story her Yiddish grandmother once told her, about a protector forged of desperation…and Eve, to her own shock, manages to create a golem.

At first, everything seems great. The golem is indeed protective—and also attractive. But when they head out to a rural summer camp for the family wedding, Eve’s lighthearted rom-com fantasy swiftly mudslides into something much darker.

With moments of moodiness, fierce love and unexpected laughter, I Made It Out of Clay will make you see monsters everywhere.

©2024 Beth Kander (P)2024 Harlequin Enterprises, Limited

Cute but it should have been edited better. Recommend

I liked the premise of a golem reawakening in the modern world. The protagonist grates on the nerves a bit as a 40-year old nervous wreck. But by the end of the book she had some self awareness and a cute Jewish boyfriend. The parts about grief were well written and the family dynamics were spot on. I’m curious to see how this author matures and what her future work may look like.

Too preachy.

Too preachy,, too teachie, too icky. Waited to have the story resolve but it never did more than spread out the icky.

Complex and surprising

Full of well-drawn characters. A strange, surprising take on old myths and modern problems. An excellent wintertime read!

Relatable Light Romance

I’m not usually a fiction fan, but I really enjoyed this because of how relatable the main character was. As a Jewish reader it’s nice to have Jewish female protagonist :) It’s not cerebral, and definitely light fun reading.

A marvelous exploration of grief and joy

As a gentile man, reading about a grieving jewish young women with a challenging family, I was forced to examine many difficult thoughts and feelings… thank you!

Great novel and great production!

I read the book and loved it and this audio book was even better! I loved following Eve’s journey to healing and acceptance. Love the golem and wanted even more messages from Bubbie from the mystery. Wonderful

A dark rom com with depth

I loved this. It was funny and cozy enough to fit in to my end-of-year comfort reading Holiday Bookstravaganza, but had a lot more depth than the usual rom-com cozy read (I hope we see more of that -- I'm for it). I enjoyed the exploration of grief and the turmoil of living in interesting times against the backdrop of the holidays, both Hanukkah and Christmas. The complicated involvement with the golem was really interesting and a little uncomfortable and I think it should be -- I felt like it was a more realistic and mature exploration than you usually get with a mythical-creature-comes-to-life storyline. It gives me the ick when that character is so innocent that they're sweet and childlike -- this wasn't that at all and I appreciated it. I hope there's a movie (and maybe a sequal)? I listened to this via audiobook and the narration was great, but there's a depth to the writing that I know would make it a really good non-audio read as well.

honest study of grief and anxiety

bracingly honest (and witty!) study on grief, anxiety, and depression amongst the tensions of in the modern world.

Great rom com

What a great story about finding yourself when life throws you curve balls. It's easy to relate to the main character.

Irritating narration

I thought the characters were awful stereotypes and the narration only made that worse. I don’t recommend this book.